One thing was probable, whether a supernatural wisdom and power were given her or not,—­she yet might animate the courage of others, she might stimulate them to heroic action, and revive their hopes; for if God was with them, who could be against them?  What she had to do was simply this,—­to persuade princes and nobles that the Lord would deliver the nation.  Let the conviction be planted in the minds of a religious people that God is with them, and in some way will come to their aid if they themselves will put forth their own energies, and they will be almost sure to rally.  And here was an inspired woman, as they supposed, ready to lead them on to victory, not by her military skill, but by indicating to them the way as an interpreter of the Divine will.  This was not more extraordinary than the repeated deliverances of the Hebrew nation under religious leaders.

The signal deliverance of the French at that gloomy period from the hands of the English, by Joan of Arc, was a religious movement.  The Maid is to be viewed as a religious phenomenon; she rested her whole power and mission on the supposition that she was inspired to point out the way of deliverance.  She claimed nothing for herself, was utterly without vanity, ambition, or pride, and had no worldly ends to gain.  Her character was without a flaw.  She was as near perfection as any mortal ever was:  religious, fervent, unselfish, gentle, modest, chaste, patriotic, bent on one thing only,—­to be of service to her country, without reward; and to be of service only by way of encouragement, and pointing out what seemed to her to be the direction of God.

So Joan fearlessly stood before kings and nobles and generals, yet in the modest gentleness of conscious virtue, to direct them what to do, as a sort of messenger of Heaven.  What was rank or learning to her?  If she was sent by a voice that spoke to her soul, and that voice was from God, what was human greatness to her?  It paled before the greatness which commissioned her.  In the discharge of her mission all men were alike in her eyes; the distinctions of rank faded away in the mighty issues which she wished to bring about, even the rescue of France from foreign enemies, and which she fully believed she could effect with God’s aid, and in the way that He should indicate.

Whether the ruling powers fully believed in her or not, they at last complied with her wishes and prayers, though not until she had been subjected to many insults from learned priests and powerful nobles, whom she finally won by her modest and wise replies.  Said one of them mockingly:  “If it be God’s will that the English shall quit France, there is no need for men-at-arms.”  To whom she replied:  “The men-at-arms must fight, and God shall give the victory.”  She saw no other deliverance than through fighting, and fighting bravely, and heroically, as the means of success.  She was commissioned, she said, to stimulate the men to fight,—­not to pray, but to fight.  She promised no rescue by supernatural means, but only through natural forces.  France was not to despond, but to take courage, and fight.  There was no imposture about her, only zeal and good sense, to impress upon the country the necessity of bravery and renewed exertions.